49-year-old Raymond Rowe, 'DJ Freez', of Lancaster, PA was arrested and his clients are left hanging
Rowe is currently being held at Lancaster County Prison without bail for the 1992 murder of 25-year-old Christy Mirack, who was a Lancaster County elementary school teacher who was beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted on Dec. 21, 1992, in her townhome.
His clients are left in limbo because they had paid a deposit to book him for local events and weddings. Unfortunately, his company's clients may be out of luck and unable to get their money back. Those who have ever planned a large event know that this is a nightmare.
Other local DJs are stepping in to help out by covering those events while Rowe is currently being held.
Who was Raymond Rowe?
Raymond Rowe, who was born in 1968, didn't fit the description of a cold-blooded killer. He was a former break-dancer who attended J.P. McCaskey High School and started his DJ career by DJing house parties in the 1980s. There's a possibility that Mirack, who was a college student at the time, may have attended some of Rowe's events.
Rowe was married 4 times. His current wife, who he married in 2013, is from Ukraine.
He was arrested in 2001 when police raided a club that he was DJing at for underage drinkers, and was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Authorities are unsure how Rowe knew the victim.
How did Raymond Rowe get caught?
DNA was collected by authorities from Mirack’s body and from the carpet where her body laid to create a profile on GEDmatch, a public database that is used to find family members.
The DNA matched a relative of Rowe's, who was already in the system. Further investigations later led to Raymond Rowe as a suspect.
To confirm, undercover investigators then got Rowe’s DNA from chewing gum and a water bottle he had used at one of his events.
This technique was also used to catch Joseph James DeAngelo in the “Golden State Killer” case in California.
In 2017, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman released a composite of the killer based on DNA that was collected at the scene of the murder.
Raymond Rowe's preliminary hearing is scheduled July 9 with District Judge Denise Commins
Photo: Christy Mirack
Christy Mirack's family remembers her on the 19th anniversary of her murder